@dfcentre Perhaps I can help you:
We don't really require passwords - user accounts allow participation on the forums, control of artist profile options, and will eventually be required for submissions, but simply browsing the site and downloading mixes can be done without an account.
We DO have an SSL certificate, and we HAVE enabled the option in our forum software so that when you log on, it's via SSL. It redirects back out of SSL after the login has occurred, but the credentials are sent encrypted. See attached screenshot; you can also see this via logging out and back in - the password is posted via HTTPS.